Knut

At birth little Knut was rejected by his mother, Tosca, who is said to be a retired east German circus bear. Despite the laws of nature according to which his faith would have been death, he was taken in by the Berlin Zoo for rescue where he now is a key player. His story has achieved him great recognition in the public eye in Germany and supposedly polar bear merchandise of all sorts is being sold beside his enclosure at the zoo to the large number of his admirers.Knut even has his own podcast and webcam.While some animal rights activists argue that it would have been better to have Knut killed at birth, he has become an important symbol of the losses from global warming and is to be adopted as the mascot for next year's international environment conference in Berlin. Knut also recently graced the Leibovitz shot cover of Vanity Fair's Green issue together with activist Leonardo Di Caprio.